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United Airlines CEO supports wealth tax despite $32 million paycheck
The CEO of United Airlines fully supports the idea of wealth tax. Scott Kirby, 59, is of the opinion that millionaires like him should pay more.
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The CEO of United Airlines fully supports the idea of wealth tax. Scott Kirby, 59, is of the opinion that millionaires like him should pay more. In an interview with The New York Times, published October 18, Kirby called wealth inequality a danger to society as he said that the US should have a national wealth tax.
A wealth tax is fair: United CEO
“Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that,” said the CEO of United Airlines.
Kirby further supported the idea of an inheritance tax, saying he would gladly pay. According to Fortune magazine, Kirby took home about $32.3 million in total compensation last year.
“We should have a national wealth tax — it won’t work by state because people will just move. And I think we should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100 percent at some level. I would pay them,” he said.
A few days later, Scott Kirby told CNBC that a wealth tax is only fair.
“I think a wealth tax… is just about fairness…. If you’re wealthy enough, you can put money aside, and by the way, I think it would apply to me, put money aside, let it grow forever, never realize income on it, you can let it grow forever and it never gets taxed,” he said.
The case against wealth tax
Mariana Trujillo, managing director of government finance at the Reason Foundation, told Fortune magazine that a wealth tax could discourage economic growth.
“Taxing accumulated wealth discourages investment and entrepreneurship — the very forces that have made our lives better than those of our grandparents and great-grandparents. Economic progress, not the state, has driven improvements in our material condition. A wealth tax discourages the very thing it aims to promote,” she said.
(Also read: United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby's viral ‘drag queen’ video sparks outrage)
Meanwhile in California, voters rejected a first-of-its-kind tax on billionaires. The proposal sought to impose a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of Californians with assets exceeding $1 billion. Most of the revenue would have been used to offset federal healthcare funding cuts, with the remainder earmarked for education and food assistance.
According to an Associated Press report, the campaign against the measure raised nearly 10 times more than its supporters. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone contributed over $100 million to efforts to defeat it. Critics argued the tax could drive wealthy residents out of California.
